USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 13
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The alarm about Staunton is described by the Rev. John Craig in his narrative. He says : " When General Braddock was defeated and killed, our country was laid open to the enemy, our people were in dreadful confusion, and discouraged to the highest degree. Some of the richer sort that could take some money with them to live upon were for flying to a safer part of the country. My advice was then called for, which I gave, opposing that scheme as a scandal to our nation, falling below our brave ancestors, making ourselves a reproach among Virginians, a dishonor to our friends at home, an evidence of cowardice, want of faith and a noble Christian dependence on God, as able to save and deliver from the heathen ; it would be a lasting blot to our posterity." Mr. Craig urged the building of forts, one of which was to be the church. He says: "They required me to go before them in the work, which I did cheerfully, though it cost me one-third of my estate. The people readily followed, and my congregation in less than too months was well fortified."-[See Foote's Sketches, page 32.]
In the above extract, Mr. Craig seems to refer to the building of the present stone church, and to fix the date as not earlier than 1755; but possibly his reference is particularly to the fortifications con- structed around the building, the remains of which are still visible. Many families took refuge there upon occasions of alarm. The cattle were, of course, left on the farms, and the cows were likely to suffer by going unmilked. It is said that the Moffett family, whose residence was miles away, had a negro female servant who displayed courage and fidelity at such times worthy of a heroine. Every night, mounted
* A daughter of Mr. Craighead was the first wife of Patrick Calhoun, father of John C. Calhoun. The latter's mother was a Miss Caldwell.
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on a black horse, as less likely to be seen by a lurking foe than one of a different color, she rode home, relieved the swollen udders of the kine, churned the milk of the previous night, and returned with the butter to the fort before daylight.
Governor Dinwiddie never wearied in denouncing and ridiculing Colonel Dunbar for going into winter-quarters in midsummer. Writing to Colonel Patton July 16th, he says : "I am sorry to hear a further dismal account of murders in your county, and I fear your people are seized with a panic in suffering the Indians in such small companies to do the mischief they do without raising to oppose them. Surely if they were properly headed and encouraged they would overcome then all. I have sent some powder, &c., to Colouel Stewart. I liave ordered the whole militia of this dominion to be in arms, and your neighboring counties are directed to send men to your assistance on your application."
It is curious to discover that the people of Halifax county also were apprehensive of Indian invasion, but Halifax then extended west- ward to the Blue Ridge.
The Governor of Virginia found constant occupation during this time in writing scolding letters, but in writing abroad he stood up for the credit of the provincial troops. To Sir Thomas Robinson, refer- ring to Braddock's disaster, he said : "All the officers and men raised here behaved well, but am sorry to hear the private men of the regu- lars were seized with panic, run away like sheep."
To Colonel James Patton, the Governor wrote, August Ist : "This day I have sent a cart load of ammunition, &c., to your Court House. How can you think I am able to order sustenance to the poor people that have left their plantations? I wish they had not been seized with such panic as prevented their resisting the few enemies that appeared in your county." At the date of this letter Colonel Patton was in his grave.
Foote's Sketches of Virginia, second series, contain a long account of the circumstances attending the death of Colonel Patton, and of the captivity and escape of Mrs. Mary Ingles. Dr. John P. Hale, of Ka- nawha, a descendent of Mrs. Ingles, in his work called "Trans- Alleghany Pioneers," gives a still fuller and, doubtless, more accurate account, and we shall mainly follow the latter.
Thomas Ingles, says Dr. Hale, came from Ireland when a wid- ower, with his three sons, William, Matthew and John, and settled first in Pennsylvania. According to tradition, he, in 1744, accompa- nied by his son, William, then a youth, made an excursion into the wilds of Southwest Virginia, going as far as New River. On this
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occasion, it is supposed, he became acquainted with Colonel James Patton. The latter then or soon afterward held a grant from the British crown of 120,000 acres of land west of the Blue Ridge, at that time Augusta county, but in the present counties of Botetourt, Mont- gomery, etc. The old town of Pattonsburg, on James river, in Bote- tourt, was called for him, and the opposite town of Buchanan was so named for his son-in-law, Colonel John Buchanan.
During the same excursion, probably, the Ingleses for the first time encountered the Draper family, who had settled on James River, at Pattonsburg. This family consisted of George Draper, his wife, and his two children, John and Mary. While living at Pattonsburg, George Draper went out hunting, and was never heard of again. About the year 1748 the Ingleses, Drapers, Adam Harman, Henry Leonard and James Burke, removed from James river and settled near the present town of Blacksburg, in Montgomery county, calling the place Draper's Meadow, since known as Smithfield.
In April, 1749, the house of Adam Harman was raided by Indians, but, as far as appears, no murders were perpetrated. This is said to have been the first depredation by Indians on the whites west of the Alleghany. It was reported to a justice of the peace for Augusta county, with a view to the recovery of damages allowed by law.
William Ingles and Mary Draper were married in 1750, and John Draper and Bettie Robertson in 1754. The marriages no doubt took place in Staunton, there being no minister nearer Draper's Meadow authorized to perform the ceremony.
In July, 1755, Colonel Patton went to the upper country on busi- ness, and was accompanied, it is said, by his nephew, William Preston. He was resting from the fatigues of his journey, and also seeking re- covery from sickness, at the dwelling of William Ingles and the Drapers. It was on Sunday, the 8th of July, says Dr. Hale-but cir- cumstances had led us to fix the date at least a week later *-- that an unexpected assault was made on the house by Indians. Preston had gone to Philip Lybrook's to engage his help in harvesting. William Ingles and John Draper were away from the house. Foote says they and others were at work in the harvest field ; but if it was on Sunday the statement is quite certainly incorrect. Mrs. John Draper, being in the yard, was the first to discover the Indians. She hastened into the house to give the alarm, and snatching up her sleeping infant ran out on the opposite side. Some of the Indians fired upon her, breaking her right arm, and causing the child to fall to the ground. Taking
* The "Preston Register " gives the date as July 30.
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up the infant with her left hand she continued her flight, but was over- taken, and the scull of the child was crushed against the end of a log. At the moment of the assault, Colonel Patton was sitting at a table writing, with his broadsword before him. Being a man of great strength, of large frame, and over six feet high, he cut down two Indians, but was shot aud killed by others out of his reach. Other persons killed were Mrs. George Draper, the child of John Draper, and a man named Casper Barrier. The Indians plundered the premises, securing all the guns and ammunition, and setting fire to the build- ings, immediately started on their retreat, carrying with them as pris- oners Henry Leonard, Mrs. John Draper, and Mrs. Ingles and her two children,-Thomas four, and George two years of age. The unarmed men in the field could only provide for their own safety. The conutry was sparsely settled, and some days elapsed before a rescuing party could be collected.
The Indians, on their hasty retreat, stopped at the house of Philip Barger, an old man, cut off his head and carried it in a bag to Ly- brook's. Preston and Lybrook had gone back to Draper's Meadows by a different route from that taken by the Indians, and thus they escaped.
In letters written by Governor Dinwiddie on the 11th of August (nine letters were written by him the same day) he referred to Patton's deatlı. To Colonel David Stewart, of Augusta, he wrote that Patton "was wrong to go so far back without a proper guard." He hoped the wagons with ammunition did not fall into the hands of the Indians ; but he could not conceive what Patton was to do with ammunition " so far from the inhabited part of the country." Writing to Colonel Buchanan at the same date, he expressed regret that the men sent by Buchanan "after the murderers, did not come up with them." This is the only information we have of any pursuit.
A letter written by John Madison, Clerk of the County Court of Augusta, to his cousin, Col. James Madison of Orange, father of Presi- dent Madison, dated August 19, 1755 (erroneously printed 1753), shows the spirit of the times. We find it in Rieves's Life of Madison. The writer says : "Four families on their flight from a branch of New River this minute passed my house, who say that five men were mur- dered at the house of Ephraim Voss, on Roanoke, since the death of Col. Patton. "Tis shocking to think of the calamity of the poor wretches who live on the Holstou and New rivers, who for upwards of a hundred miles have left their habitations, lost their crops and vast numbers of their stock. Could you see, dear friend, the women who escaped, crying after their murdered husbands, with their helpless
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children hanging on them, it could but wound your very soul." He alludes to the appointment of Andrew Lewis as Lieutenant of the county, and expects to see his instructions on next court day. He is extremely obliged to "good friends for the guns sent," and will return them as soon as otherwise provided. He is also mnuch obliged to Col. Madison for an invitation to take refuge with him, but his " train" is too large; and moreover, if he loses his all with his life, his children may as well go too. In a postscript he says : "I verily believe they are determined on our destruction. However, as they come in small parties, if they will be so kind as to stay till I have finished my fort, may Heaven send me a few of them."
Colonel Patton's will was admitted to record by the County Court of Augusta, at Staunton, at November term, 1755. It was executed September 1, 1750, and witnessed by Thomas Stewart, Edward Hall, and John Williams. The following are extracts ?
"I commend my soul to God who gave it, hoping, through his mercy and the merits and intercession of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to be eternally happy. My body I commit to Providence, but if convenient to where I resign my last breath, to be buried at the Tinkling Spring, where my wife now lays. *
* I order ten pounds to be paid to the Rev. John Craig, minister at ye Tinkling Spring, as his stepans* due from October, 1740, until October, 1750, out of the money now due ine by y't congregation, which money I have advanced for them to build their meeting-house, &c. Providing I do not pay s'd {10 before my death. I leave ten pounds out of the aforesaid debt when collected, to be layed out by the minister onley for a pulpit and pulpit cloth."
The testator divided his estate between his two daughters, Mary, wife of William Thompson, and Margaret, wife of Colonel John Bu- chanan, and their children. The Thompsons thus acquired Spring- hill and about 3,000 acres known as "Indian Fields," on the waters of Holston river. William Thompson and wife had a life estate in the property, with remainder to their son, James Thompson. The Bu- chanans had two daughters, Mary and Jane. The latter became the second wife of Col. John Floyd, and mother of the first Governor Floyd.
The executors appointed were John Buchanan, William Thompson, William Preston, and Silas Hart. The last named declined to serve. Possibly he did not like the direction of the will, that any question arising between the executors about the estate should be finally settled by the minister and elders of Tinkling Spring congregation ! The
* Scotch-Irish for "stipends."
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inventory of the estate shows that the testator was wealthy, inde- pendently of his lands.
It is unnecessary to say that Colonel Patton's request as to his burial place, was not complied with. It was impossible at that day to transport a corpse from Smithfield to Tinkling Spring. He was buried near the spot where he " resigned his last breath," and his grave was covered with loose stones. There is no slab or inscription. An idle report arose that a large amount of money was buried with the body, and the grave was desecrated a few years ago by vandals in search of the treasure.
Let us now briefly relate the adventures of Mrs. Ingles. On the third night out she gave birth to a female child, but was able to pro- ceed the next day on horseback. She and the other prisoners were taken by the Indians to Ohio. Being a woman of extraordinary courage and tact, she ingratiated herself with the savages, making shirts for them and gaining their good-will in a hundred ways. Her two older children were, however, separated from her, and she then determined to escape, if possible. The narrative of her courage and sufferings on her trip home is almost incredible. She was absent about five months, of which time forty-two days were passed on her return.
With an elderly "Dutch woman," captured on the frontier of Pennsylvania and detained in servitude, Mrs. Ingles was taken by a party of Indians to Big Bone Lick, now Boone county, Kentucky, to make salt. This place was so called from the large number of masto- don bones found there,-some of the ribs and tusks were so long as to be used for tent poles. She prevailed upon the old woman mentioned, whose name is not known, to accompany her in her flight. Her infant could not be taken along. It was therefore deposited in a crib and abandoned by its mother, whose grief may be imagined, but not described .* Loading a horse with corn, the fugitives proceeded up the Ohio river. Before they reached the Big Kanawha the old woman became frantic from exposure and hunger. She afterwards made an insane attack upon Mrs. Ingles' life, and the latter only escaped by outrunning her pursuer and concealing herself.
Mrs. Ingles finally came to the remains of some abandoned settle- ments and found a few turnips which had not been consumed by wild animals. She had now been out forty days, and had traveled not less than twenty miles a day. Her clothing had been worn and torn by the bushes until few fragments remained. In this condition she reached a clearing made in the spring on New river by Adam Har-
* Some of Mrs. Ingles' descendants vehemently deny that she had an infant to eave behind, but we follow Dr. Hale.
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man. He recognized her call, and hastened to meet and carry her to his cabin. Mr. Harman took her on horseback to a fort at Dunkard's Bottom, and there she was found the next day by her husband and her brother, John Draper, who had been making every effort in their power for the rescue of the captives.
The old Dutch woman found her way to the settlements, and in course of time returned to Pennsylvania through Staunton and Win- chester.
Mrs. Draper was released six or seven years afterward. George Ingles died in captivity while still a child. Thomas was redeemed by his father when he was seventeen years of age. He was unable to speak English, and is said to have been a perfect savage in appearance and manners. His father sent him to school, but he never became fully reconciled to civilized life.
But let us follow the fortunes of Mrs. Ingles somewhat further. As stated, she was taken on her return to a fort at Dunkard's Bottom, on the west side of New River, near Ingles' Ferry. Feeling insecure there, her husband took her twenty miles further east to Vass' fort, where the settlers of that region had gathered for safety. This fort was near the head of Roanoke river, about ten iniles west of where Christiansburg now stands. Many of the forts, so called, were merely log pens, and others were log or stone dwellings, larger and stronger than ordinary, which, however, afforded shelter from savages unpro- vided with artillery. Vass' fort was a small structure erected by tlie settlers as a place of temporary refuge. The name was variously written, Voss, Vause, or Vaux.
Still fearing an attack by Indians, Mrs. Ingles prevailed 11pon her husband to take her east of the Blue Ridge. On the very day they left Vass', that fort was captured by Indians, and every one in it killed or taken prisoner. Jolin Ingles, a bachelor, and the wife and child of his brother, Mattliew, were killed in the fort. Matthew was out hunting when the attack was made, and hearing the firing, hastened back. He shot one Indian, and clubbed others with his gun, till it was wrenched from his hands. He then seized a frying-pan that hap- pened to be near, and belabored liis foes with the handle till he was wounded and overcome. The Indians carried him off, but some time after, being released or escaping, he returned to the settlement. He never entirely recovered from his wounds, however, and died a few months after his return .*
* Mrs. Judge Allen Taylor, of Botetourt, was a descendant of Mrs. Ingles. Other descendants, besides Dr. Hale, are the children of the late Mrs. William J. Gilkeson, and also Mrs. R. S. Harnsberger, Mrs. William D. Anderson, and others, of Augusta. Mrs. Ingles died in 1813, aged 84.
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The fort is supposed to have been destroyed by the Indians. In 1756, however, a stronger Fort was built there at public expense, under the superintendence of Captain Peter Hogg, and the latter is the fort alluded to by Governor Dinwiddie in his correspondence as Vass' or Voss' fort.
From early in 1755 till he finally left the province and went "home," Governor Dinwiddie's letters flew thick and fast. On the 11th of August he wrote to Captain Andrew Lewis, recognizing him as next in command to Colonel Patton, in Augusta, and enclosing blank commissions for the officers of a company of rangers. He also sent him {200 to defray expenses. To Colonel John Buchanan he wrote, recommending the employment of dogs for finding out the Indians. By the 25th of August he had four companies of rangers in Augusta. In another letter of the same date he speaks of five companies on the frontier of the county. He still had an eye to economy, however, and took time to advise Captain John Smith that forty shillings was too much to pay for a coat to be given to some friendly Indian warrior. He never did get over the loss of the wagon which Colonel Patton had with him in his last expedition. In a letter to Washington, dated December 14th, 1755, the Governor complained of Captain Hogg's ex- travagance as follows: "Captain Hogg sent a messenger here for money to pay for provisions for his company. The quantity he men- tioned I think was sufficient for twenty months, and charged £10 for a trough to salt the meat in, besides the barrels."
In pursuance of measures adopted by the colonial government, Washington was commissioned as Colonel and Commander-in-Chief of Virginia troops. The officers next in rank to him, chosen by himself, were Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Stephen and Major Andrew Lewis. Peter Hogg was a captain, and William Fleming an ensign.
The records of the County Court always indicate the state of the times. At August court, 1755, Joseph Carpenter, having supplied several Indians with ammunition, whom he thought to be friendly, the court fearing they might be "allied to the French King," ordered the accused into custody till he should give security.
At October term, 1755, many claims were allowed for patrolling, for provisions for Captain David Lewis' company of rangers, for going ou express, and for guarding the arms and ammunition sent for the use of the county. At November court a number of persons qualified as officers of foot companies.
A new court-house was completed in 1755, and first occupied by the court August 21.
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In several letters, Governor Dinwiddie expressed disapprobation of the conduct of Captain Dickinson, of the Augusta rangers, in allow- ing certain Indians to slip out of his hands. They were called "pray- ing Indians," because they professed to be Christianized, but were sup- posed to be partisans of the French. Some friendly Cherokees were expected at Staunton to be employed against the Shawnees, and the Governor wrote to David Stuart and Robert McClanahan to treat these allies well.
A letter written by Robert McClanahan, dated September 23, 1755. relating to supplies for rangers and Indian allies, was found among the papers in an old suit. The name of the person to whom it was addressed, does not appear ; but circumstances indicate that it was either William Preston or Robert Breckinridge. The writer speaks of one hundred and fifty Cherokees who were expected, and inquires when and to whom the supplies should be delivered. He says that Capt. Dickinson and his company had "a small scrimmage" with nine Indians, in which one white man and one Indian were killed, and "two small Indian boys belonging to the Cherokees, being captives, were released." The boys were at Fort Dinwiddie, and the Governor had been written to in regard to them. If the Cherokees were in- formed about the boys, "perhaps it might exasperate them against our enemies," says the writer.
By October 11th, Washington was in command at Winchester, and at that date wrote to the Governor giving an account of affairs there. The utmost aların and confusion still prevailed. The militia refused to stir. No orders were obeyed which were not en- forced by a party of soldiers or the commander's drawn sword. The people threatened to blow out his brains. On one day an express, spent with fatigue and fear, reported a party of Indians twelve miles off, the inhabitants flying, etc. A second express ten times more ter- rified than the former, arrived with information that the Indians had gotten within four miles of town, and were killing all before them. Only forty-one men could be mustered, and on leading them out the colonel found, instead of Indians, three drunken soldiers of the light horse on a carousal. A mulatto and a negro hunting cattle and mis- taken for Indians, had caused the alarm at the farther point. The inhabitants, however, pressed across the Blue Ridge, firmly believing that Winchester was taken and in flames. Captain Waggoner, who had arrived from Eastern Virginia, reported that he "could hardly pass the Ridge for the crowds of people who were flying as if every moment was death."
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Washington had lately made a visit of inspection from Fort Cum- berland, on the Potomac, to Fort Dinwiddie on Jackson's river. On the 14th of October Major Lewis arrived at Winchester, from Freder- icksburg, with eighty men of the regiment, on the way to Fort Cum- berland. On the 25th the detachment reached Cumberland, having passed deserted houses, cornfields laid waste, and the remains of a white man killed by Indians and partly devoured by wolves. Two women caught in the act of robbing abandoned houses, were ducked by order of Maj. Lewis. [Journal of Capt. Charles Lewis of Caroline county.]
Badly as the Governor thought or wrote of our forefathers of Au- gusta county, he did not think more favorably of tlie people elsewhere. In October he coudoled with Lord Fairfax, County Lieutenant of Frederick, for having to live among such a set of people.
After so much strife and excitement, it is a relief to close this chapter and the year 1755 witli a peaceful extract. At a meeting of the vestry of the parisli, November 27th, it was "ordered that the Rev. Mr. John Jones preach at James Neeley's on Roan Oke ; at John Mathews, Sn., in the forks of James river : at Augusta Courthouse ; at Captain Daniel Harrison's, and at any place contiguous to Mr. Madi- son's, at such times as said Jones shall think proper." The forks of James river was in the present county of Rockbridge, * and Captain Harrison and Mr. Madison lived in Rockinghanı.
Allusion has been made to a new courthouse in 1755. The work was projected in 1752, but not completed till the summer of 1755. We have no description of the building. It no doubt furnished better quarters for " his Majesty's Judicatory" than courthouse No. I. At any rate it had a chimney and fireplace, for iu 1763 the sheriff was " ordered to purchase a pair of fire-dogs for the courthouse chimney, and employ workmen to repair the hearth." This building was occu- pied by the Court till 1788.
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